Can someone tell me who the villian is regarding the postal strike?

[frostyfingers]

I think I've missed what the reasons are for this proposed strike. All you get is that they won't talk to each other to sort it out - the actual reasons seem to have got lost.

On one hand I rely a lot on the post, as I work from home, in the middle of nowhere and get a lot of mail so I'm cheesed off that they are thinking of striking. It will really affect me work wise. On the other hand I assume the bosses of the RM are being unreasonable otherwise it wouldn't have happened in the first place.

Is there any one there who can give both sides of the story, and what do you think?

[DuelingFANGo]

there's some info here but am not that sure myself. My workmate's husband is a postal worker and apparently there are issues over the pension (They took a 17 year pension break!!!) and changes in working hours.

[DuelingFANGo]

Maybe all of us should send extra letters in support of the Royal Mail!?

[MaggieBehaveOutGuising]

When are they going to start it?

[Takver]

Don't know about this particular strike, but my experience of the Royal Mail (we run a mail order company - so quite a bit) is that as far as I can see it is being purposely run into the ground so that it can be 'saved' by privatisation. Basically, anything that makes it easy for businesses to use the RM is abolished.
I have total sympathy for the postal workers - who in my experience as individuals at a local level are pretty much always helpful and will go out of their way to sort things out for our business, but I think that they have been manouvered (sp??) into this strike as part of a long term strategy to break up the Royal Mail and privatise it.

[DuelingFANGo]

I think they are striking on 22/23 october?

[Itsjustafleshwound]

Thursday and Friday this week ...

I think the big issue is that there has to be a major overhaul of the entire business plan of Royal Mail - the EU has ruled against the RM monopoly - other mailing companies have come in and taken over the more profitable business and left RM with the expensive, low margin business ...

[ampster]

I've found this article by a postal worker (published in the London Review of Books) to be very useful in helping to clarify what's going on:

www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n18/maya01_.html

[elkiedee]

Thanks ampster, and it's nice to see a thread where someone actually asks what it's all about rather than just assuming the workforce must be in the wrong.

As a recipient and, less often, but sometimes, a sender of post, I think that most of the changes or modernisation in the Royal Mail have been rather negative for us as well as workers - lack of regular postie for years at a time, post arriving very late in the day, parcels being really awkward to get as they go to the post office which is a mile away and not on the way to anywhere else we go, masses of junk mail including real scam stuff which defrauds lots of rather poor and vulnerable people (which is apparently vital to the profits of the RM).

I have a real problem with the whole concept of the RM as a business rather than a service, personally.

[RamblingRosa]

I think management are the villains of this piece. That's not how it's being portrayed in the media though.
I support the postal workers and I support their strike.
Royal Mail has really upped their game on the PR and media front, whereas the union, the CWU, really hasn't got a clue how to play the media.

[frostyfingers]

Thanks all - a bit clearer now, but still fed up about my possible lack of post. It's mad that people still have to resort to striking in order to get themselves heard. Nobody is going to win from this, not the postal workers, not the RM and not us, the mere "customers". Grrr!

[LaurieScaryCake]

That link ampster just posted has made me blisteringly angry on behalf of the posties

[crockydoodle]

Excellent article. Glad to see the reasons for the strike being explained so well. Most people think it is all about money.

[bluebump]

That is a really good article, I feel cross on the postal workers behalf now. I didn't really understand what the strike was about before.

[ABetaDad]

My feeling is we will eventually all end up just going and picking up our own mail from a central mail box cabinet in the street or at the local post office and the postman on the walk/bike will be no more.

The unions failed to allow graduated modernisation of the system with natural wastage playing its part in reducing staff levels. They played the stategy wrong by demanding Labour to protect all the jobs at all costs.

That was always impossible for Labour to deliver and I predict the unions will cave in in the next few weeks because they know they will get no sympathy under a Tory Govt.

[Phoenix]

I don't know the ins and outs cos i'm on maternity leave but as usual it is the management that are been the arses. They are trying to make changes that no one wants (i think)

[mabh]

I have some sympathies for posties because it used to be a good job, but the fact is that the RM absolutely has to change, and that's been the case for many years.

They have to modernise because a) the EU says so as someone has already said b) they're losing postal volume at about 10% per year and b) they've been in a terrible financial position for years.

We either have to allow them to be a public service, and fund massive losses and costs which we will have to pay for (via taxes and massively increased posting prices) or privatise it, and then it will be a very different (and probably worse) service indeed.

Compromise IS needed but no-one is interested.

BTW assuming the management are fiends is unhelpful!

[pointyhat]

nice article, ampster, thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I don't think the posties have a hope in hell of winning this. It's a crying shame but that's the way of things.

There is absolutely no way that private companies could rpovide the same good service as teh Royal Mail.

[Nancy66]

The postal deliveries where I live are so appalling that I find it hard to believe that a private company could do any worse.

We got some post today - or first since last Friday. Unfortunately it wasn't mine - it was for somebody two streets away. This is a regular occurrence and not a one off.

[bumpsoon]

i for one support the postal staff ,a fantastic article by the way ampster , strange isnt it how the media in general seem to be ignoring alot of the points this postman makes.
the royal mail will be ground down ,we the taxpayer will continue to carry the pension burden and recieve a very poor service for doing so .

[edam]

Excellent article by postie in LRB, thanks ampster.

I reckon Govt. and RM management have deliberately provoked the strike so they can smash the union and divvy up the Mail, so private companies can cherry-pick the profitable parts while the poor benighted taxpayer is left with the rest. And that poor benighted taxpayer will get lots of glossy junk mail in return, but be left with a shit service for any other post.

Lenin's dead right about the massive move to casualisation right across the workforce of this country, btw.

[edam]

(Oh and as usual the govt. is gold-plating the EU directive - other EU countries manage to interpret directives in a way that suits them, ours seems to rush to make things as difficult and expensive as possible. Maybe it gets work for all their mates in management consultancy or something.)

[sherby]

I was talking to my postie about this the other day. He said that they DO NOT want to strike but it really is the last option for them. His route is twice as long as it was and he is spending much more time sorting than he was having too before. There were some other things but I think from what he was saying that it is fair enough they are striking.

[bumpsoon]

Also why has no one pulled up royal mail on their claims about the apparent 10% drop in postal volume ? it simply doesnt add up does it ,considering the massive increase in internet trade , starnge but the last time i ordered from amazon my parcel was delivered by royal mail .Unfortunatley the unions arnt as media savvy as they could be , their spokesperson tends to sound like a union rep , and nowadays i think you need to put someone forward who doesnt .And i cannot believe a word 'mandy' says about anything , all in all i really believe we are being lied to